Italy

[tanguerra]

Rome

Marching into Ancient Egypt with the Roman Army
I have one brief memory of marching into an ancient Egyptian city with the Roman army just as a regular soldier.

If I had a rank it would not have been a very high one - maybe a corporal or something, whatever the Roman equivalent might have been.

I remember a feeling of great pride and elation seeing our banners flying in the sun and the bright sunlight reflecting off the helmets of the soldiers all around me.

This may well have been in the time of Julius Caesar when Egypt and Rome had a peaceful alliance, as I don't believe we were coming as conquerers or anything. There had certainly been no fighting on this occasion. But we were making a fine parade (and show of force) entering the city...

 

[tanguerra]

Rome......

....Although the 'warrior' is still very much part of my nature, I would never think of harming anyone, quite the contrary. For example, there was a minor scuffle in the street the other day. It involved two (rather silly) men I know slightly outside a cafe a couple of doors up from where I was sitting doing the crossword with a friend. There was a difference of opinion and one smacked the other on the nose and the smackee leapt upon the smacker and pushed him to the ground with his hands around his throat. Just one of those silly things that happens when young men have a little more alcohol than is probably wise. Various other men had got themselves involved either joining in or attempting to break it up, so there was a bit of a pile up happening within seconds.
I thought someone might actually get hurt, so I said 'excuse me a moment' to my friend and strode over and very calmly pulled them all apart one at a time by the back of their collars (very effective method) and got the smackee off the other chap by pulling him up by the ear and the collar (even more effective, he was rather cross). It was all over in moments. I gave them both a stern lecture and told them to apologise to each other, I didn't care who started it and I was not having any fisticuffs of any sort while I was trying to enjoy a quiet evening. Problem solved. Mind you, a woman can probably get away with that more than a man can and I am quite tall and strong and was sober which is a big advantage. I can be quite authoritative and even intimidating when I want, you can perhaps imagine.


I went back to my seat where my friend was very startled. He asked, "How do you know how to do that?" I said, "Oh, I don't know. I just did what comes naturally. It wasn't difficult or anything". He continued to marvel that a woman had a) jumped up to sort the situation out b) been so quick and effective c) was not the least phased by the whole thing. I thought it was funny if anything. To me something like that is as simple as breaking up a squabble in a kindergarten.


I was thinking about it later on that evening and I recalled breaking up a fight between soldiers in a camp more than once in some previous life (probably ancient Rome, I might have been some kind of 'sergeant' whatever the equivalent was back then of whoever had to keep the guys in order). Those guys were big, combat trained and armed! Not cafe latte drinking nitwits after one too many Chardonnays!...

 

[tanguerra]

Rome....


From the thread 'Earliest memory of a memory'


I associate this with Rome because I remembered teaching other men to fight with short swords in Rome and was just trying to be helpful!

...When I was about 3 1/2 or 4 I had my first day at kindergarten. I remember very clearly standing in the little playground watching the children all playing and being a little overawed by it all. I saw some little boys playing 'sword fights' with sticks. Now, this was something I understood! I could see at once that they were not understanding what they were doing.
I went over to the group and after watching for a bit I said, 'Look, I'll show you'. I picked up a stick and did some kind of thrust, block, parry, thrust thing. I don't know. I knew what I was doing at the time though. So, I poked the little boy (very gently) under the arm or something, just to show him the technique. It's funny, I knew what I was doing, and that I didn't want to hurt the little boy so I was being very careful.


He [was shocked that a girl had got the better of him so easily and embarrassed in front of the other little kids] and said something like 'Do that again' so I did [it again, just as easily, exactly the same way] and he burst into tears [because I was a girl I think and it confused him]. The teacher came out to see what was the matter and I had to go and do finger painting because 'Little girls aren't supposed to play with sticks'.


I remember finger painting and sulking a bit because I'd rather have been outside with the other kids thinking something like 'Hmmm... this is going to be complicated....'


I don't know. I guess my 'consciousness' was still coalescing. All part of the natural process I guess. That's probably the earliest clear one anyway...